The controversial £1.2 billion makeover of London’s busiest train station has been officially approved

Liverpool Street Station is a chaotic place. On any given day, a trip through Livvy Street will likely see you come face to face with drunk city workers clutching McDonald’s bags, rowdy hen and stag dos and miffed tourists trying to fight their way through the hubbub. That’s why there have been plans to redevelop the Victorian station for quite a while. Now, a controversial £1.2 billion development proposal for the hub has just been approved.

The Liverpool Street redevelopment has seen a few iterations over the past few years. First developers wanted to build a 16-storey tower over the station, but after backlash from conservationists and celebrities like like Stephen Fry and Tracey Emin, different designs were submitted.

Things are finally pressing ahead because yesterday (February 10) Network Rail was granted planning permission by the City of London to transform the station. Liverpool Street was last redeveloped in 1991 and passenger numbers have tripled since then, making it London’s busiest terminal. It’s estimated that 158 million people could pass through the station in 2041. 

With the approved plans created by ACME architects, ’Pool Street will see it’s concourse capacity increased by 76 percent while the station will be made fully accessible with step-free access from street level to all platforms including the London Underground. It will see the addition of eight new lifts and six new escalators, as well as toilets on all levels and new landmark entrances. 

The Victorian trainshed will remain untouched, however the redevelopment will see an office block built on top of the station with a publicly accessible roof garden.

Ellie Burrows, Managing Director for Network Rail's Eastern region, said: ‘This decision represents a key step towards the transformation of Britain's busiest station and marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Liverpool Street.

‘Our plans focus on improving the everyday experience for passengers whilst respecting the station's unique heritage. With annual passenger numbers forecast to grow to 158 million, this approval ensures the station will be future proofed for decades to come.’

Conservationists at the Victorian Society are still unhappy about the development. They called the approval of planning permission a ‘sad day for the City of London’, adding that the works would ‘destroy an existing conservation area’. 

Griff Rhys Jones, President of the Victorian Society and of the Liverpool Street Station Campaign (LISSCA) said: ‘A disfiguring billion pound office block on top of a major heritage asset is not essential to the City's development plans, it is doubtful whether it will easily provide the profit to “improve” the concourse, and can only realise a small amount of extra space for the passenger. Its focus is retail opportunities which the commuter doesn't need.’

He added: ‘It has been proposed on a false PR-led assertion that Network Rail is “under instruction” to build on top of its London Stations. It is not. Any advantages to disabled access are a statutory duty and should not require twenty storeys of office block and ten years of disruption to achieve. By ignoring all these considerations, the Corporation planning committee have bowed to developer ambitions, set a bad precedent for London and ignore the user.’

A regular user of Liverpool Street? Watch out for major weekend closures throughout March.

ICYMI: This London icon that was once voted ‘Britain’s ugliest building’ has just been protected for future generations. 

Plus: A £750 million new neighbourhood could be built in east London. 

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